That was very interesting, Sara. Thank you. I'm not sure if we get the US edition of Newsweek in Australia - a lot of magazines are modified (and not necessarily for the better) once they dip below the equator.
The checklist was good. I was a bit alarmed at the reference to smoking or chewing tobacco - maybe our draconic legislation down here has borne fruit after all. As for driving after 11 pm - they're bringing in even stricter laws for our P plate drivers, so they've got to have a darn good reason (such as driving home from a job) which is REGISTERED with police. And no more than one passenger. Not sure if it's legislation yet, but it's well on the way. Our P plate drivers - the kids here get their Learners permit at 16, they can't get their P (provisional) before 17. The P is red for the first year, then green for the next year. I think they're increasing this, so Ps will last for more than 2 years. This will mean you have to be at least 19 with a spotless record before going on to a full licence. No alcohol is permitted AT ALL on Ls or Ps.
Each one of these restrictions has been brought in after research showed a link between NOT having these things in place, and a higher accident rate in under-25 drivers.
So at least in the Aussie experience - yes, the evidence is there.
easy child 2/difficult child 2 has been especially tired. She does get enough sleep (in terms of hours per day, for her age group) but it's just not enough. She has told me she wants to go see a doctor about this, ASAP.
Back to the early starts - Aussie high schools start at 830 or 8.45 am. Some final year students take extra classes in some subjects, which simply don't fit into the school curriculum. Depending on what is agreed on between students and teacher, these classes can be before school (starting an hour early) or they can be on sports afternoons. I remember in my final year of high school, I took physics as an extra elective. At first we trialled the early start, but too many of us were just too tired. There were only six in the class across two grades, we did have a fair bit of wiggle room. Just as I'd adapted to the early start, we switched to the first hour of our sports afternoon, which worked a lot better for us. Just as our brains were fogging from an overdose of physics our class would finish and we would all pile into the teacher's car and head for the squash court to bash a ball really hard (reminiscent of sub-atomic particle theory).
Definitely, we did a lot better with the later start.
Our exams - final year high school get state-wide exams, every student in the state (private schools as well as state-based) has the same timetable to follow. And Day 1 of our final year exams was also Day 1 of Daylight Saving - for our body clocks, the exam was starting at 8 am, not 9 am. We had to be there half an hour earlier, so a lot of us were really struggling.
These days, daylight saving now starts several weeks earlier, so the students have (hopefully) already adapted to it before the exams hit. These are really serious exams - uni entrance, future work prospects, school graduation etc all rolled into one. It's cruel to have to get up extra early, even if you know every other student is having to do it too. Some cope better than others.
Thanks again, Sara.
Marg